International Circulation and Local Assemblage in Chile of Bullying as Epistemic Object

Abstract

This article studies the emergence of bullying in Chile, considered as a cognitive, affective, and pragmatic configuration. It analyzes how it has been incorporated into public use in the country during the last two decades, becoming an object of legislation, regulation, and management, and converted into an object of government. The study is based on interviews with 16 strategic informants, 562 news, and more than 350 documents. After identifying milestones in the emergence of bullying as an epistemic object internationally, we describe its arrival and reconfiguration in the country. We propose that social scientists, international organizations, and mass media were crucial in the international transport and national assemblage of bullying. Its national configuration, made possible by four key groups of experts from the social sciences, occurred within the State’s networks and was operationalized through legislation and public intervention programs. A normative framing associated with human rights provided this object with a strong normative force. This research contributes to understanding how epistemic objects such as bullying become part of shared experiences of social reality.